Evaluating Gait and Locomotion in Rodents with the CatWalk

Abstract

Motor deficits can significantly affect the completion of daily life activities and have a negative impact on quality of life. Consequently, motor function is an important behavioral endpoint to measure for in vivo pathophysiologic studies in a variety of research areas, such as toxicant exposure, drug development, disease characterization, and transgenic phenotyping. Evaluation of motor function is also critical to the interpretation of cognitive behavioral assays, as many rely on intact motor abilities to derive meaningful data. As such, gait analysis is an important component of behavioral research and can be achieved by manual or video‐assisted methods. Manual gait analysis methods, however, are prone to observer bias and are unable to capture many critical parameters. In contrast, automated video‐assisted gait analysis can quickly and reliably assess gait and locomotor abnormalities that were previously difficult to collect manually. Here, we describe the evaluation of gait and locomotion in rodents using the automated Noldus CatWalk XT system. We include a step‐by‐step guide for running an experiment using the CatWalk XT system and discuss theory and considerations when evaluating rodent gait. The protocol and discussion provided here act as a supplemental resource to the manual for this commercially available system and can assist CatWalk users in their experimental design and implementation. © 2021 Wiley Periodicals LLC.

Intralimb locomotor coordination in rats walking on asymmetric pegway

“…Previously, the pattern of sequential muscle activation has been described in cats during the symmetrical locomotion on a treadmill with and without obstacles and during the reaching to a lever movement (Forssberg et al, 1980; Yakovenko et al, 2011). While kinematic analysis of stepping in rodents has been extensively based on motion tracking and even exoskeleton use (Garrick et al, 2021; Hewitt et al, 2018; Song and Hogan, 2015), the description of muscle coordination in the context of the manipulation of stepping symmetry is a novel result in this study. A stereotyped spatiotemporal sequence of activation in representative forelimb muscles was persistent and mirroring across the asymmetric tasks.…”

Activation of basolateral amygdala to anterior cingulate cortex circuit alleviates MK-801 induced social and cognitive deficits of schizophrenia

“…CatWalk XT (v10.6, Noldus Information Technology Inc., Netherlands) was used as previously reported to quantitatively assess gait function and motor performance as a complication of schizophrenia ( Garrick et al, 2021 ). The apparatus consisted of a 1.3 m long transparent glass corridor with dim green light internally reflected into the glass walkway, with a high-speed video camera placed beneath the glass to record the walking patterns.…”

“…A trial was regarded as compliant if the mouse ran over the defined field of the camera (40 cm) without a reverse course and met the following criteria: run duration ranging from 3 to 30 s, run speed variation of 60%, and subsequent steps were more than seven steps. All gait characteristics were calculated with a special focus on (1) temporal parameters: stand time (time of paw contact with the glass), swing time (time the paw was not contacting the glass), step cycle (stand duration + swing duration); (2) spatial patterns: stride length (the distance between successive placements of the same paw), print length and width (the length/width of the complete print for that paw); and (3) speed- or velocity-related parameters: swing speed and body speed ( Ungvari et al, 2017 ; Garrick et al, 2021 ).…”

Longitudinal assessment of motor function following the unilateral intrastriatal 6-hydroxydopamine lesion model in mice

“…The gait of naturally moving mice was analyzed with CatWalk XT (Noldus Information Technology, Netherlands) as previously described ( Kappos et al, 2017 ; Garrick et al, 2021 ). The CatWalk gait system consists of a glass walkway floor illuminated with a green light that is completely internally reflected in the glass, a standard charge-coupled device (CCD) camera underneath, and software for recording and analyzing the data obtained from mouse paws.…”